- I take a dish like pad Thai or drunken noodles, and I just go with my gut on what I think is gonna expand the flavors, expand the depth, and hit all the taste buds.

- [Stefanie] Where an artist may pick up a paint brush, Chef Pete Grondin picks up a pan and things begin to sizzle.

- Through my travels, I did work overseas a little bit, mostly for free rent, but I frequented a lot of restaurants.

So, I took the best of every restaurant and I put them all into one.

And then I created a menu based on global cuisine with my own spin.

My heart, honestly, that's really what it is.

I don't know how to describe it.

My staff doesn't understand it because I can just whip up some crazy thing.

- [Stefanie] With dishes inspired by his time overseas, you might be surprised to learn that working in the food industry wasn't exactly the goal.

- It was more for survival.

I had no intention of this ever happening.

I had no intention of ever becoming a chef or a restaurant owner.

It was just a means to an end as a 16-year-old.

And I did work all over Mount Pleasant through my very early twenties.

I lived a very colorful life in my teens and most of my twenties.

And I struggled with addiction, so, I decided to vacate the town and that's when my life changed.

And I moved to Mackinac Island and that is where I really fell in love with culinary arts and food.

And I did a lot of networking there, made a lot of great connections.

And from there I decided to move to Hawaii and I lived out there for two years.

And from there, I started traveling internationally through Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and China.

- [Stefanie] Traveling abroad may have inspired Pete's culinary journey, but it also put him on the path towards something else, peace.

- I don't know when that changed.

I think it was part of, I know I told you I had a very colorful life and some struggles in the past, and I think I started noticing I'm a very creative person.

I'm an artist.

I paint.

I do a lot of wood carvings and different, you know, I grow bonsai trees.

I'm just a very creative person.

I need that in my life.

And I think it took five or six years before I realized, wow, I can do that with food, you know?

And it hits all the hits all the things that I need in me, you know?

And then once food gave me that creative outlet, I noticed healing.

- [Stefanie] Pete returned to Mount Pleasant and began feeding people out of his food truck.

It wasn't easy.

18 months later, though, he opened his first storefront.

He credits the community with his success and in return pays it back when he's able.

- It took a while.

It took a lot of sacrifice, going without my daughter, my newborn daughter going without.

So, people think I own a restaurant and I don't look at this as a restaurant, I look at it more of a community institution.

What do you think of when you think of an institution?

A hospital, a school courthouse?

When you walk into those places, you feel it's professional.

You feel like you can trust them.

You know you're getting quality service, quality care.

That's what I want for the Twisted Fork.